S-21 and Choeun Ek Killing Fields of Cambodia

The blog that follows is very long-winded and could be disturbing to some people, however it is something which had a great impact on me and interests me greatly therefore it may be more about me just needing to write stuff down as opposed to you wanting to read about it! I took no pictures as a small mark of respect (and because both phone and camera are broken). I'm in a state of complete and utter disbelief. How can a few people cause such a widespread devastation. These people killed 2million of their own, enlisted child soldiers, destroyed the whole infrastructure of a country. These people are still alive and until 2007 free. These people are the Khmer Rouge. A ruthless communist party who during the Cambodian civil war fought, with the support of the King, against the US backed Lon Nol, the government army who had overthrown the King. The US bombings in Cambodia aided the Khmer Rouge in gaining support. The US bombing campaign dropped more bombs in Cambodia than all the bombs dropped in WW2 combined. The Khmer Rouge gained support and large areas of the country until they gained control of the capital Phnom Penh and with it the government. Citizens celebrated as they thought the war was over. Celebrations were short lived as a mere 3 hours later the citizens of Phnom Penh were being evacuated out to the countryside under the pretense that the city was about to get bombed by the US. Instead it was a move by the Khmer Rouge to start again at "Year Zero" . The people moved from the city worked in the fields as slaves for 12-15hours a day. Upon taking control on April 17 1975 the first targets were the senior government and military officials who were connected to the old regime of Lon Nol. The vision of the Khmer Rouge was to "cleanse" Cambodia and start again at "Year Zero". They destroyed banks, universities, religious buildings, abolished currency and closed all borders cutting Cambodia off from the rest of the world. The aim was to make Cambodia a classless communist state based on rural agrarian economy. To achieve this anyone who was "impure" was detained in prison where they were tortured, interrogated and executed. "Impure" was deemed to be anyone with a professional background or educated or of ethnic minority, so teachers, professors, doctors, nurses were all killed. The regime were paranoid, ordering that whole families be killed in order to prevent children coming back to take revenge in later years. By the later years of the.revolution ordinary Cambodian citizens were being imprisoned on accusations that they were part of the CIA or supported Lon Nol or were anti-revolutionary. When people were captured many were taken to Tuol Sleng also known by code name S-21, which was a school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison. Here prisoners were detained for 2-6 months while they were interrogated mainly for crimes they didn't commit. They were forced to admit to these crims to lessen the time they were tortured for. Prisoners would be detained in single 0.8x2m cells or in classrooms of 40 people lying on the floor with feet shackled together and hands tied. The only time they were allowed out was for interrogation and torture. Torture methods included continuous whipping of the back, when one guard got tired another would take over; removing finger nails and then pouring alcohol on the wound; having scorpions and centipedes sting nipples of both men and women; hanging victims upside down until they were unconscious and then dipping them in dirty water used as fertilizer so they quickly regained consciousness to continue interrogations. Victims would be tortured for hours a day. The torture wasn't intended to kill them but to force confsessions. However many died in Tuol Sleng due to torture, starvation (prisoners got approx 8mouthfulls of thin rice soup a day) or disease. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous with their documentation. Photographs were taken as prisoners entered Tuol Sleng, during their torture, careful lists of prisoners names to be transported to ChoeungEk and endless pages of confessions made by prisoners. When enough information had been extracted prisoners would be sent in trucks to a killing field at Choeung Ek. Here name lists would be double checked to ensure no-one had escaped before the blindfolded and shackled prisoners were told to kneel down at the edge of pits. Guards would hit the back of victims necks with everyday farming tools: hoes, ox-cart axles, sticks etc: to save bullets which were too expensive. Their necks were then slit, blindfolds and clothes removed and the bodies thrown into the pits. Chemicals would be thrown over the bodies to kill anyone still alive and to disguise the stench of death. The majority of the Khmer Rouge were young Cambodians who had volunteered as in a time when there was little food they knew they would be fed and have a job. Few joined on grounds of political agreement. These young "cadres" as they were called were as young as 13 and were guards at Tuol Sleng, at the killing fields and fighting on the front line against the Vietnamese. These cadres were also victims, when they signed up they didn't think they would be killing their own people, their own families. If they didn't do as they were ordered they too would be killed for being antirevolutionary. On January 7 1979, 3 years 8 months and 20 days after the Khmer Rouge took power the Vietnamese toppled Pol Pots government. As Vietnamese troops neared Phnom Penh the Khmer Rouge fled to the jungle and mountains in the west. When the Vietnamese came across Tuol Sleng they found 7 people alive. 20,000 people had gone through Tuol Sleng, no-one ever escaped and only 7 survived. At Choeung Ek Killing Fields 129 mass graves were found containing about 17,000 bodies: men, women, children, babies, elderly, foreigners and members of the Khmer Rouge themselves. Around the country over 20,000 mass graves and hundreds of prisons have been found. Until 1999 the Khmer Rouge were still in existence, however then all the senior leaders defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia, had been arrested or had died. Up until that point, 20 years since their fall from power, they had lived as free people still with some control over the country and even until 1990 had a seat in the UN. Of the 6 main Khmer Rouge leaders only 4 are still alive. Pol Pot, the leader, was arreste in 1998 but died in 1999 before he could be put on trial. Leng Sary was arrested in 2007and was awaiting trial when he died only 4 weeks ago. Leng Sarys wife and sister-in-law of Pol Pot, leng Thirith was also arrested in 2007 but was excused in 2011 due to Alzheimers Disease. Comrade Duch is the only one so far to be trialled. He was sentenced in 2010 to 35 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity, genocide and breaches of the Geneva Convention. He is also the only leader to admit to any involvement and plead guilty to his crimes. He was the officer in charge of Tuol Sleng. The remaining 2, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were also arrested in 2007 and await trial. Both deny any involvement despite being second in command after Pol Pot. As for all other members of the Khmer Rouge, no charges will be put against them. Most are remorseful for their actions and given the choice wouldn't have done it, but it was kill when they were told or be killed themselves. Some however support the Khmer Rouge and have no regrets about what they did. Its strange to walk the streets of Phnom Penh knowing I might be walking with people who killed tens or hundreds of their own people. These Khmer Rouge soldiers will now be as young as 50 years old. I have spent the last two days at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek and it has been a deeply moving experience. A lot of Tuol Sleng has been left almost exactly the way the Vietnamese it in 1979. The torture beds and tools still remain, cells are the way they were left, chalkboards still hang on the walls from the school days before 1975. I'm not sure but I think some of the the blood stains still remain on classroom floors. The barbed wire on the outside of one of the four buildings is still there, put up to prevent prisoners from jumping to their death. Inside some of the rooms are the thousands of pictures that the Khmer Rouge when prisoners entered. Pictures of women, men, elderly, children, babies, foreigners and government officers. There are also pictures that the Vietnamese took when they found Tuol Sleng of the last 14 victims to be killed. They buried them in the courtyard outside. The guide that showed me around had herself experienced the ruthlessness of the regime. She had seen her father and brother taken away, she never saw them again. Her and her mother were sent to opposite sides of the country to work in the fields, 14 hours a day, fed twice a day on very thin rice soup. At the end of the revolution, aged 13 she walked across the country to the district she knew her mother to be in where they were reunited. I also met Chum Mey, one of the seven survivors of Tuol Sleng. He is now over 80 years old and survived because the Khmer Rouge found out he was a painter. He was told to paint the scenes of torture so the soldiers could prove to those above them that their orders were being carried out. He was given the privilege of sleeping in the painting room, getting the left over food from the soldiers and not getting interrogated after the first 2 months. Today he tells his story so the younger generation of Cambodia understand the mistakes made and don't allow history to repeat itself.